What’s going on?
Been a busy and interesting week here in Chez Murphy – so here's the down and the low.
Started last Friday with the Clayton's Convention. For the past few years, those members who can't make it to the Romance Writer's of Australia convention convene online for several days of inspiration, information and fun. Unfortunately, I only managed to make it to the Friday – had another event Saturday (will talk on that in a mo) and needed Sunday off, but the Friday was fantastic. A chat from Samhain editor Sasha Knight. A FABULOUS workshop by Diane Gaston on filter words – words we don't think about when we're writing but are just gap-holders (I've already used a lot of this in my editing of my contemporary romance). Fun activities, like writing a short story and doing an online scavenger hunt. Friday night, we went into a chatroom and had a fabulous time, talking and joking. It was a great thing and something to consider running alongside Natcons for us SF folks.
Saturday I headed to the CSIRO discovery centre for this year's Getting The Facts Right presentations. It started last year, as part of National Science Week – a whole lot of sciency folks give short presentations on their fields of expertise, then answer questions so we writers can, as it were, GET THE FACTS RIGHT. Lots of interesting things were learnt. I was really pleased that this year, they did the climate change stuff first – last year they did it last and I walked out of there pretty depressed. However, after we'd been bummed out with how bad the earth could be if we don't do something, they then put the forensic guys on and that is always cool and – well, not uplifting but we did get some pointers on how to get away with murder :)
Roll on Monday and the return to editing. I was up to the point where I needed to read the manuscript aloud, only I've still got a cough that comes and goes and knowing I had a library talk to give on Thursday, was wanting to spare my voice. So I downloaded the manuscript onto my Kindle and had it read it to me. We're just past the half-way mark at the moment and I have to say – my Kindle really likes to swear. Honestly, the emphasis it put on the occasional 'shit' and 'fuck' in the MS is very funny. At the end of yesterday, it read out the first sex scene and that was – weird. I do have to say – if you're not a good speller, this is a brilliant way to check the spelling because if it's not spelt right, the device can't read the word out.
Wednesday became housework day (because I didn't do it on Saturday) and I prepared for the library talk. Then to the CSFG, where we got pretty advanced on the organising for the anthology (which should be going to the printers on Monday). I've taken advantage of my position as launch and printer organiser and thus having an early copy of the anthology have started reading it and it's pretty bloody good!
Here's the invite, if you're interested in coming to the launch:
At the CSFG meeting, Gillian gave a fascinating talk about her trip to Europe. It was great to see the towns that she visited, and some of the beautiful stuff, but I was more interested by what she was saying about the interviews she did with various writers about how they approach their writing and the thoughtfulness behind it. I'm hoping she'll be writing some more indepth articles on that – they'll be fascinating. That, and then listening to some of the questions and comments from people later, made me realise how far I've come in my writing. A couple of years ago, I used to laugh at what people thought I was doing with my stories – I'm just writing them, I said to myself. I'm not THINKING about all this stuff. Now, I realise that I was – subconsciously, but I was. And the step between thinking you're not thinking and realising that YOU DO is actually a leap in skill level and ability as a writer.
Yesterday, I did a talk at Civic Library. Hubby came along, as did the wonderful Kaaron Warren (who brought her kids as it was a pupil free day in ACT – on a Thursday? Silly education department…) But there were other people there as well – complete strangers. Although one (sorry, forgot name) was a newcomer at the CSFG meeting the night before. A couple took off during the hour, but otherwise I think it went well. I chatted about how the Dream of Asarlai came to be, read from Secret Ones and answered some questions. It was fun.
Wow – my hands really DO move a lot when I talk [image error]
So, that's my week so far. I'll finish revising my cont romance this weekend and then I need to decide – one more round of readers, to be on the safe side, or just jump in and start submitting? Next week, I'll start revising the gadda novella. And then I'm thinking I might get out my old sf romance and see if it's worth trying to polish up for submission to publishers.
